Tag: pyaz kachori

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My love for the walled city is quite known, as mentioned earlier, that place makes me feel like Alice in wonderland. Hence I always cook up excuses and look for opportunities to visit that part of the town. And what better time there is to walk those famed food lanes than in the month of December. The well settled winter chill coupled with possibly the best time to be out basking in the warm sun, we zeroed down on a perfect December afternoon.

Swooping on the heady combination available, a FED raid was called for and a bunch of Food Enthusiasts assembled at the Chawri Bazaar Metro station. This raid was dedicated to explore Sita Ram Bazaar, one of the lesser known lanes of the walled city; however it is also the lane that I end up visiting most often. My regular visits can be attributed to my Aunt, who lives there with her family.

What probably very few people know about the Old Delhi food trail is the fact that this particular part of the city, famed for its kebabs and biryanis, also houses lanes that are an absolute delight for a vegetarian. Chawri Bazaar and Sita Ram Bazaar, strongholds of the Hindu trading communities are areas that are traditionally pure vegetarian. As far as I know, even eggs are a very recent addition to the food scene there. This happens to be the area from where the famous Chat, Kachori, Samose, Bedmi, Nagori, Gol Gappe, Kulfi etc of walled city hale from.

The Sita Ram Bazaar food walk that day was quite an ad hoc for experience for me as well. I knew the lanes like the back of my hand but what I was not sure of was which vendors would be serving at that time of the day? Was Sunday the day I would find all that I had sampled previously? Would my regular guy be there or would we miss him by an hour or so? However there was one thing I was pretty sure of and that was the fact that we would not be disappointed. The happy smiles throughout ensure that I don’t need to emphasize of this point at all.

While waiting for other foodies at the metro station, the temptation to have Ram Laddoos of the hawker standing right next to gate number three was hard to resist. Though they were not extraordinary but totally succulent and with the right amount of salt and spices and worth the moolah and the long wait. However as I often say, even the average food you get in those lanes is better than the good food elsewhere.

Ram Laddoo, all dressed up 😛

Ram Laddoo outside the Metro Station

Food Enthusiasts waiting to embark on the Expedition

Post the Ram Laddoos we started our expedition, and decided to give a skip to the Ashok Chat this time. Been there, done that way too many times. But Hey! May be next time :D. Our first stop was a cart selling Kachoris. I am sure many of us love our drinks, however a night of heavy drinking always leaves a bad taste in mouth the morning after. And that is where Kamal Kachori waala’s claim to fame comes from. He is the only vendor that I know who serves his kachoris with chhole, instead of the usual aloo ki subzi. His chhole are known to be super spicy, making them extremely popular among people suffering from ‘morning after’ taste buds. But don’t lose heart, you can find pure joy and delight on any given day with or without the hung-over taste. The heat of the red chilli ‘tadka’ in the chhole and the strong and potent smell of heeng from the kachori would be enough to open up and assault your sinuses. Quite understandably one of the best and the most hit item we sampled that day all I can say is that I cannot wait to get back there and stuff myself silly with those kachoris.

Harjeev enjoying the Kamal’s Kachori

Pallavi found the flavors to be too difficult to resist.

To stay informed about our outings and other activities please join us on our Facebook Page. For more information about FED Raids, click here. Next in queue for the foodies was Chhole Bhature which is not technically a walled city specialty. My past experience with this Chhole Bhature waala (Near Lal Darwaza) was decent and this time as well he did not disappoint. Though not at par with the best in business, however still edible.

Quite surprisingly the lanes were choc-a-block with people selling Daulat ki Chat; however I have been warned time and again against having it from any of them due to various reasons. Luckily Gali Arya Samaj in Sita Ram Bazaar has the best Daulat Ki Chat waala in business. For those of you who are wondering what Daulat ki chat is, it is basically milk froth mixed with khoya. Froth is made by whipping the milk for a long time, and then powdered sugar and khoya are added to it before serving. It’s a winter delicacy and an extremely light dessert. Kalakand came next on list, coming straight from the Kadhai of another vendor with a small unnamed shop in the same lane. It was fresh and delicious.

Frech batch of Kalakand being prepared

Kalakand from the last Batch

Unable to think of anything else to eat in that gali, we decided to move towards Kucha Pati Ram, home to legendary Kude Mal Kulfi waala. However instead of taking the conventional route, we took another ‘exotic’ route and stumbled upon a shop selling Kachori and Samosa. How was it different? They had two varieties of Samosas, one stuffed with Mutter (Peas) and the other with Gobhi. The mutter samosa was quite a revelation, and also quite a hit. It is the season for peas and hence they were quite sweet, tender and flavorful. Mixed well with the right spices they are a potent combo for the taste buds.

Mutter Samosa

Kachoris and Samosas

It was no surprise that Kude Mal, once again turned out to be highlight of the day. Just imagine 25 foodies, jostling with each other for every piece of kulfi that was available. From Anaar, Phalsa, Jaamun, Aam, Kiwi to Paan, Fruit Cream, Classic Kulfi, Aam Panna and Kala Khata, you name it and we had them all.

Unfortunately there was only person who was serving us, and before he could scoop out an entire kulfi from the can, it was already gone. But after having 40 kulfis in all, we had no reason to complain. And what was absolutely as delightful as the kulfis themselves was the fact that all of us took the Old Delhi lanes and got back to our childhood, quite literally. I don’t remember the last time all of us created such a racket to sample something. Jostle, jump and tug for something with all our heart and not once not twice but forty almost times like a bunch of over enthusiastic kids.

The final stop of the evening was in Chawri Bazaar for Veg Kathi Kebabs and Rumali Rotis. This is something that again one does not find on a daily basis in walled city, and luckily for us, we were there on a Sunday. Maybe I love that stuff too much because I am yet to have a Kathi Kebab that I did not like. That said most of my experiences of eating it have been in walled city as well. Average food found within the walled city is more often than not better than the good food found elsewhere ;-).

Veg. Kathi Kebab being prepared

The joy of being there that Sunday afternoon and the joy of revisiting that experience to pen it down is as good a conclusion as I can come up with for this post. Old Delhi lived to its promise, it sprang up some surprises and least of all it managed to delight one and all. Asking anything more is asking too much.

Food Enthusiasts of Delhi – The Happy Bunch

PS : Besides good food, the super-awesome company took the experience to all new high.

Yesterday I was scouting the bazaars of Shahdara, looking for a quick bite for my combo of breakfast and lunch around 12 in the noon (brunch, as the more enlightened lot calls it), when my eyes settled on a shop which looked extremely crowded. And then I realised it was Hira sweets, a name quite popular in Delhi’s traditional food scape, particularly for their Balushahis. Couple of shops away was Hira Namkeen Bhandar, which I was told was part of Hira Sweets only, however later realised that Hira Sweets and Hira Namkeen Bhandar have different owners, albeit they are brothers.

Kachoris @ Hira Namkeen Bhandar

I spotted Kachoris at Hira Namkeen Bhandar, and started to drool :P. I did not bother to look at anything else on offer. They have a separate counter outside the main shop was serving Kachori and Samosas, which at Rs.20 per plate were quite steeply priced. I was with my cousin and we started with a Samosa first, which I am glad they serve with Aloo Subzi and Methi ki Chutney. I have always liked my samosas with Subzi or Chhole rather than Chutney, cannot tell you why, but its the way it is. And then it was turn of their Kachori, which I found to be surprisingly small for the price.

Samosa with Aloo Subzi and Methi ki Chutney

The samosa’s filling was mixed with proper spices, and Subzi mixed with Chutney gave some contrasting flavors, which I thought were lovely. In kachoris the Pithi stuffed tasted fine, however a soft white layer of flour under the crispy crust suggested that they should have been fried on a slower flame for a bit longer. That Layer is a big turnoff in kachoris and for me, it separates the best from the rest.

My rating – 3.5/5, though the food was really good, however in Delhi we get much better Kachoris and Samosas at several places. That said, if I am in Shahdara or surrounding areas, then I would make sure that I go back to Hira Namkeen Bhandar to sample the goodies once more.

Couple of weeks back, I was at Delhi Haat for a photowalk with some friends. After sun went down, we decided to settle down to grad a quick bite. Even though we were at Rajasthani Stall, however we still managed to get some momos :P, here are some pics from that evening.

Aloo Tikki Chaat

Mirch Bada

Pyaz Kachori with Lassi

Momos, they seem to be getting everywhere

Moong Dal Halwa, I love this

Do I have to spell this out ? :D, yup Jalebi….

Even though the stall did not have lot of things that I tried to order, however whatever they managed to serve was quite good. We get almost everything else quite commonly, however my focus was on Pyaz Kachori and Mirch Bada and I must say that I was not disappointed. I would not recommend the Lassi though. Even though the mainstay of cuisine, Dal Baati Churma, is yet to be tested, however I can definitely go back there for Murch Bada and Pyaz Kachori.

Me and Rohan Kaikini visited walled city this Sunday morning. Wanted to make a detailed post on it, however for now posting some pictures from the visit. The prime ‘target’ was Lotan Kulchewaala, and we were not disappointed at all. He has an unique style of making chhole which I have not seen anywhere else till now. Just a tip, if you like your food to hot (Chilly Hot), then ask him to keep in normal or else ask him to keep the spices low 😉

The version with normal Masala, extra Khatai and oodles of butter.

Crowd at Lotan Kulchewala at 8:30 AM.

This is supposed to be a very slow day for his business.

Deepak preparing the Chhole, adding ‘Masala’ and Khatai

And Deepak decides to play showman, doing tricks with ubiquitous potato.

Here you go..

The more mundane version, normal masala and khatai.

well, all I can say is slurrrrpppp.. !

Now after couple of plates of mouthwatering stuff, we wanted to have more, however going to area and not paying out respects at Shyam sweets would have been sacrilege, so we decided to bid adieu to Lotan and headed towards Shyam Sweets

Patrons enjoying goodies at Shyam sweets

Bedmi with Aloo Subzi, there are not many places that serve these.

And it does not get more ‘exotic’ than this, Halwa Nagouri, in a league of its own.